http://www.armystrongstories.com ArmyStrongStories.com is a U.S. Army Accessions Command blog where Soldiers share their authentic stories about life in the Army through blog entries, photos and video. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:30:00 GMT Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:30:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/andre-dean/why-i-serve/ Sometimes we catch ourselves asking this very fundamental question about military serivce: "Why did I sign up to wear this uniform and serve my Country with my life?" For me all I have to do is look around my office and see a few poignant reminders of what this protection of my beloved USA is all about. Today it is as simple as this little hand-made tie created for me last Father's Day by my little angel 8-year-old Helena, which hangs prominently on my "love-me" wall. Check out the photo below and tell me if there is a better reason than leaving my little girl a better America than the one I was given by my Army-serving father before me....and to pass this legacy and love affair with America and my deeply held love for my family on down the line to generations still unborn. Honored to keep on "rocking" for the ones I love, like all my band of brothers and sisters who wear the uniform alongside me, just as my little Helena reaches out to love me for what I do…(you have to love the green tie against that white shirt collar she drew)     Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:16:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/andre-dean/why-i-serve/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/shahin-oskouei/exhibitor/ So,       This is my first blog while on DSEP ( Drill Sergeant Exhibitor Program) the purpose of the program is have a active duty Drill Sergeant on location where all types of event are held to help spread the Army message. Recently we have participated in the 2010 Chicago auto show, Viva LA, and a MLB event held in Compton California.  All of the events are top quality and recieve help  from the local community and the Army. The last event I went to was in California held at Lincoln HS were we helped by interacting with JROTC and students intrested in engineering. Of course we had a guest speaker a CSM of the engineer corps we spent the day building structures that can with stand a earth quake, Of course they had a platfrom that simulated earthquakes. Most the buildings held up pretty good some not so well. Just goes to show a engineer needs to know what there doing. Our next events will be Texas, Brownsville and San Antonio and Six Flags. So if your in the area and want to here about Army life or just have some questions stop on in and talk with the drill sergeants. Yes drill sergeants talk also were not always yelling. Untill next time   DS O Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:53:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/shahin-oskouei/exhibitor/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/kendall-mower/army-birthday-ball/ Saturday was the birthday ball for the North Atlantic Regional Command at Ft. Belvoir.  The guest of honor for the ball was Major General Czerw.  You can see from COL Pannes' posting that he is a busy guy trying to support the Corps. At the ball were several other current and retired general officer's as well as current American Dental Association president Dr. Ron Tankersley.  With it's location in the national capital region, there were many attendees from other services that came out to support. We were also able to have many HPSP students (dental students on Army scholarships) that were able to attend.  The students came from as far away as VCU on the south and Tufts on the North with many others represented in between.  Hopefully they had a fun time and look forward to coming on active duty. This was the receiving line prior to the ball beginning.  Starting on the right.  COL Priscilla Hamilton was the mistress of ceremonies (current regional commander - incoming DENCOM Commander). Next to her was MG Czerw, and COL Ted Wong (outgoing DENCOM Commander). My wife had to attend a function for my son, so my daughter became my date.  Standing in front of the windows in the ballroom with the Potomac in the background. Standing in front of the birthday cake. Dr. Ron Tankersley current ADA president with retired Major General Bill Lefler. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:41:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/kendall-mower/army-birthday-ball/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/chris-lecron/intrinsic-motivation/ All is well here in the desert. I was able to get away today to workout during lunch. I need to buy some actual boxing gloves because the weightlifting gloves are not enough. They work for about 10-15 minutes but after that my hands start blistering. I’m definitely going to buy some or order some today because 30 minutes of heavy bag boxing equals knuckle blisters without gloves. Yesterday, we had a two star Army General that went very well. We ended up having an informal dinner at the dining facility where about 8 General Officers attended. I was in charge of the logistics of the trip down to arranging the General and his staff lodging, scheduling all of the events of the day to include meetings, office calls, and ceremonies, and lastly picking up and dropping off at the airport. One thing that I learned yesterday is that I am also in charge of the safety and security of the Generals once we venture off base camp. I carried my M9 with me to the airport and back just as a force protection measure. Very busy here and between the different routes into Afghanistan, diplomatic negotiations with neighboring Afghan nations, and the Iraq drawdown we will be very busy through the summer. We, as a unit, have some very exciting trips coming up around the area that I will take part in at least some of them. They include Jordan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Dubai, Al Asad Iraq, Bahrain, Oman, Krgyzstan, and multiple locations in Afghanistan. Some very interesting places! In my position here as deputy chief of staff, it has given me the opportunity to think about leadership and motivation a great deal. The library here had a great book about motivation that states external motivators don’t work as well in the end. As an example, people may be less motivated if they have to do something than if they are told or are exploring something. Wikipedia is one example they use where literally millions of people work for free and it is the most well known encyclopedia even over corporate one. I agree that intrinsic motivation brings out much more in people, military and civilian alike. Although people like to be recognized for what they do, they also like to have autonomy and the ability to own projects, experiment, spend time to think, and set their own goals. Anyway, that is my rant and something that I am thinking about a lot. We have a really good group of people here that I am working with from all branches of service and DOD civilians. The DOD civilians where tan desert uniforms with DOD civilian on then   A DOD civilian in the back with tan desert fatigues.  He works ammo moves for my unit and sort of looks like a pirate with his goatee and earing.  Picture is at a morale center where civilian clothes and near beer (no alcohol) is allowed.   Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:09:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/chris-lecron/intrinsic-motivation/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/sara-small/leadership-vs-ldrship/ I'm sure by now if you are in any way involved with the Army be it an officer, NCO, enlisted, future soldier, cadet, warrant officer, whatever you may be you know what LDRSHIP stands for. The Army Values: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage. We also all know what a leader is, both good and bad. I would like to give my perspective as a PFC to anyone who would like to listen. As I said last week, I had drill this weekend and was sure I was going to have stories to tell. Many things happened over the weekend that are worth noting, but due to OPSEC, I'll try to stick to generalities. Ready? The primary focus of this weekend for my company was land navigation as part of our pre-deployment checklist. Yes, that scary word no one wants to say, deployment. Anyway, land nav is probably one of the easiest parts of being a soldier provided the right tools and a little common sense. However, missing either one of these makes things VERY interesting. This is where the different forms of leadership come in to play. My company is fortunate to have multiple NCO's who have been on one or more deployments with each other and other companies, allowing each of them to bring unique experiences and life lessons to the table each drill. I believe this is what makes a good NCO from an enlisted point-of-view, someone who is confident but not cocky, self-aware, not afraid to admit when they are wrong, I could go on all day. Pretty much all good soldier skills, some confidence, some leadership experience, and of course common sense. The best example of leadership this weekend I saw was an E6 squad leader who after he sent his two teams on the course rounded up the pre-basic soldiers that were there to learn and get a jump start on soldiering before basic training and walked them through pace counts and actually accompanied them on the course teaching them about the landscape, shooting an azthmus, and just general terrain association. It was enlightening for me to see an NCO putting forth all this extra effort for a few kids who weren't even officially in the Army yet. He could have left them in the rear or just stood around with them, instead he took it as an opportunity to learn. That is good leadership if I have ever seen it. So where does LDRSHIP fall into place? Being medic on-site gave me an opportunity to watch all three platoons go through the course and watch the way the different line leaders approached the situations, and some of it suprised me. I watched enlisted soldiers who knew what was going on more then their team and squad leaders- all corporals and above- get ignored because the NCO's were so determined to do it their way and I watched enlisted members who had no clue get left out to dry because they either didn't speak up or tried to speak up and were ignored. Now in no way am I bashing anyone in my company, I believe my company is one of the best around with one of the best company commanders and first sergeants around. I am however trying to highlight one of the greatest faults there seems to be among the lower ranks. Now back to LDRSHIP. Each letter could easily have fallen into play this weekend on the course if it would have been given the opportunity. Loyalty to each member of your team and/or squad ensuring not only they knew what they were doing but could keep up physically as well, Duty for the same reasons, Respect for all members of the company utilizing an opportunity to train up the pre-basic soldiers and refresh the memories of some of the soldiers who haven't done this type of thing in awhile, Selfless Service for all the reasons listed above plus just regular desire to serve, Honor to the system, our fellow soldiers, and the country, Integrity is another good example I'll highlight in a minute, and the Personal Courage of the NCO's to admit that they were a little rusty and of the enlisted that knew what they were doing to speak up. Each of these did make or would have made the land navigation experience one everyone could have and did benefit from. Integrity- Former Infantry Corporal getting ready to reclass to MP swore up and down he didn't need anyone's help on anything because he "did this all the time." Needless to say he and his team emerged from the woods about 30 minutes after everyone started on their courses completely lost because he read the map wrong. Even though he knew he had been to cocky and made a fool of himself he was not too cocky to admit he was wrong and promptly take his team back to the starting point to start again. I guess if I had to sum up the above paragraphs in as few words as possible, they would run something along the line of "NCO's and all line leaders are to be respected and learned from. However if you know you have something to contribute and are afraid to speak up because your enlisted, IT DOESN'T MATTER! SPEAK UP! trust me, your team will thank you for it when you aren't the last team wandering in the woods." Until next week, be strong, be safe, and be smart. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:54:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/sara-small/leadership-vs-ldrship/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/kendall-mower/tall-patient/ Thursday was great.  We have several dentists that are/will be gone for training.  Because of that things will shift a little at the clinic. Thursday I was able to treat one of the tallest patients I have seen. He is completing training in AIT and will be graduating this summer and going on to play college ball.  He was 6"7".  Not sure why he wasn't smiling - he was happy both before and after the picture :) In the morning I was on exams, and we did 16 exams.  In the afternoon we did: pulp testing and placed desensitizing material on two teeth, extracted 2 teeth, delivered 1 crown, 6 fillings on 3 patients.    Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:21:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/kendall-mower/tall-patient/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/daniel-connery/cultural-awareness-and-the-virtual-environment/ (All information posted below is publicly available and unclassified) “…if we had better understood the Iraqi culture and mindset, our war plans would have been better than they were, [and] the plan for the post-war period and all its challenges would have been far better..We must improve our cultural awareness…to inform the policy process. Our policies would benefit from this not only in Iraq, but…elsewhere, where we will have long-term strategic relationships and potential military challenges for many years to come.” -Ike Skelton, in a letter to Donald Rumsfeld, October 23, 2003 (An expert in cultural awareness speaking to a student at the Functional Area 30 Qualification Course during their two-week multi-echelon at the Battle Command Training Center. Click on the picture to view the website and learn more) Cultural Awareness is a hot topic in today’s Army, but are there any more effective ways of learning about foreign cultures rather than “death by power point” or a long fact sheet such as the one below published by Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC)? FA 30 (Information Operations) personnel in the picture above attended classes, but what about mobile training for all MOS's and the troops on the ground? Arab Cultural Awareness: 58 Factsheets The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) G-2 Intelligence Support Activity (TRISA), in conjunction with the University of Texas at Dallas, has developed a virtual Iraq cultural awareness simulation. (This simulator uses the same engine as America's Army, but is no video game. Click on the picture to visit the website and learn more.) The above picture was taken during the early stages of development, and the complexity and the graphics have improved. The entire program can fit on a single DVD, which will allow for mobile training for troops "down range". Not only is the system mobile, but it is comprehensive and up to date. Dr. Marge Zielke, the professor leading the student development team states, “Much of the cultural data is being developed in real time by the military. By having it in a systems-based approach that is composable — in other words, we can generate culture in certain aspects of the game on the fly — we can respond to the data as soon as it becomes available. We could change it overnight if we needed to.” The effectiveness of such simulators still lack substantial studies, but virtual training is employed in many commercial sectors, and has effectively reduced training time in Wall Street from 2.5 years, to 1 year. No classroom or simulator is a perfect substitute for first hand, real world experience. Yet, the very point of training is to provide a mock environment to safely demonstrate key principles that may be "fine tuned" out in the field. There are ways to potentially increase effectiveness even further through technological means. (Transcranial magnetic stimulation can temporarily knock out a brain function or artificially stimulate one, and has recently been FDA approved. Click on the picture to visit the website and learn more.) Learning performance enhancing drugs such as Adderall, are legal with a prescription, but may contain adverse physical affects for the general populace. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a safe, non invasive means of effecting the brain. While the technology has not yet sufficiently progressed to specifically target all the areas associated with learning, exciting the frontal cortex causes the patient to feel more intense about their current experience. In fact, there are many investigations currently studying the use of TMS in depressing the frontal lobe to treat veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). Though there are currently no such plans to compliment virtual simulators with TMS, such a combination might increase effective training by making the experience seem that much more, "intense, realistic, or memorable." Virtual Environments and Brain Computer Interfaces are a growing field so expect to see more of their use in the future in both the military and commercial sector (and in this blog).   Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:52:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/daniel-connery/cultural-awareness-and-the-virtual-environment/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/alex-frank/leading-some-mech/ After Ranger school I did mechanized leader's course.  I was assigned to a mech unit but found out last week I am being diverted to a stryker unit, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck Germany.  Mechanized means it sports the M2 Bradley armored personnel carrier.  At Mech Leader's we gained some basic familiarization with it.  We learned basic maintenance, how to assemble and disassemble the 25 mm main gun, some basic tactics and gunnery.  The coolest thing we did was this simulator where we simulated actual battles that were very realistic.  THe simulator looked a lot like the inside of Bradley and it was tons of fun when we did a force on force.  The course was relaxed and chill, which I definitely needed.  I still feel much lazier than I did before Ranger school.  Additionally, my body doesn't recover nearly as well yet.  I will lift one day, rest three days, but still suck the next time I go to lift and not be able to do as much weight or as many reps.  I am starting to get back into the swing of things though.  I have gotten in some solid runs and feel strong again rather than the puny chubby Ranger student I was.  Here is a picture from the Bradley Range.  Firing the main gun was pretty sweet.  You can engage targets as much as 2 kilometers away effectively and it shoots a big round.  Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:12:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/alex-frank/leading-some-mech/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/john-cook/saving-afghanistan-one-advisor-at-a-time/ American strategy in Afghanistan is built around an army of advisors. They are the key to every initiative and program here and they are everywhere, from the very top of the government in Kabul building ministries and infrastructure, all the way down to the districts building bridges and roads, to the battlefields in Helmand and Kandahar building effective Afghan fighting forces. There are thousands of them scattered across the country and, due to the increased emphasis Afghanistan is getting from the US government, thousands more are on the way. Officially they are known as mentors or “partners” but their principal duty is to offer advice and assistance to their Afghan counterparts. And the Afghans are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their new advisors. In fact, nothing pleases Afghan officials as much as getting new advisors fresh off the plane, eager to save Afghanistan. The new advisors hit the ground ready and willing to support their Afghan counterparts in any way possible and the Afghans make sure the possibilities are endless. They come from all branches of service-Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines- and civilians as well as officers from Europe, Canada and Asia. They bring a wealth of experience and expertise in a variety of fields. They are fully prepared to do post graduate work with the Afghans but soon discover that their counterparts are stuck somewhere between elementary and junior high school. However, most quickly get over this initial reality check and press on. After all, this is Afghanistan, and a few bumps in the road are to be expected, right? Thirty years of war, and all that, can explain a lot of short comings and the Afghans are only too quick to point out all their shortcomings-Afghanistan is a poor country; the Russians were bad, the Taliban were bad, everything is broken, we need everything and you, my new advisor/mentor/savior/partner must help me! Conventional wisdom has always held that it will take time and money to save Afghanistan. What this really means is the advisors supply the money and the Afghans provide the time. We now have all the ingredients for an informal agreement that will be the foundation of this relationship until the advisor leaves-the advisors want to use as little time as possible and the Afghans want to use as much time as possible. Time is critically important to the advisors because they have so little of it, usually only a year. The Afghans, on the other hand, have tons of it, hundreds of years in fact. Time is unimportant to them but money is in short supply so, being pragmatic, they have altered the conventional wisdom of time and money to time is money. The longer the Afghans need help, the longer the advisors will stay. The longer the advisors stay the more money they will spend. Of course, the relationship is never specifically framed this way because that would be bad form on the part of both parties but it is always there, just below the surface. With each new crop of advisors there are lots of new ideas. The Afghans love new ideas because they always evolve into new programs employing lots of Afghans. Once a program is created, it takes on a life of its own and will survive several generations of advisors. Often, the same idea is recycled several times under a new name and a new sponsor. The Afghans have carefully studied the life span of an advisor in Afghanistan and have worked out several methods of extracting the greatest amount of money and equipment in the shortest possible time. It all starts with the first meeting over tea, preferably three cups. The Afghan will tell the advisor how delighted and honored he is to have a new counterpart. He will then proceed to tell the advisor that his predecessor was a good, dedicated, hard working professional who really tried but, well, wasn’t quite able to deliver whatever it is the Afghan official desperately needs to save his country. This is the honeymoon phase of the relationship. The advisor leaves this initial meeting with a list of needs, a fire in his belly and a burning in his brain. He is filled with an inspired sense of purpose. He will not, cannot, fail! Afghanistan needs him and he will deliver! And he does. He satisfies the initial list of needs. And the next. And the next. He has now entered the “Dances with Wolves” stage, also known as “going native.” Often, he will start speaking broken phrases of Dari, wear the traditional Afghan man-scarf and maybe even the distinctive Masood hat. He is bonding with his Afghan brother and this is the most productive phase for the Afghan. The goal is to keep the advisor in this phase as long as possible. The irony is that all of the very qualities that make for a great advisor-initiative, passion, positive attitude, dedication, and strong will to succeed-also makes him vulnerable to the slow roll. But there are always more requests, more needs, more lists. He now starts to question if he will be able to save Afghanistan after all. When he gets here, he is in the questioning phase. Slowly, over several months, he enters the inevitable disillusionment phase where he must confront the truth that he was used. Now, as the end of his yearlong tour approaches, he is filled with many emotions and they are all bad-anger, disappointment, resentment, guilt. The Afghan, on the other hand, is already looking past our hero to his replacement who will be arriving soon. When this happens, the Afghan resets the clock to zero and the cycle will repeat itself. You may well ask how could this be happening to the coalition forces with eight years experience in Afghanistan trying to save the country? The hard truth is we don’t have eight years experience here; we have one year’s experience multiplied eight times and, while the math works, it’s really not the same. Each year’s class of advisors basically starts over and the Afghans have learned to exploit this weakness. With no clear vision of what victory will look like, victory becomes difficult to visualize and impossible to achieve. To a large degree, the coalition has created the conditions that lead to this. By being overly sensitive to the possibility of appearing heavy handed in dealing with the Afghan government, the coalition has adopted the mantra of “Afghan solutions to Afghan Problems,” along with “Afghans in the Lead.” This briefs well and sounds good at a press conference. For the tiny percentage of Afghans fortunate enough to rate a coalition advisor, this is a wonderful attitude to adopt. President Karzai heartily approves. However, for the rest of the country, mired in poverty and despair, stuck somewhere between the 7th and 19th century, life goes on as before; nothing changes. In the meantime, the senior leadership of the coalition is busy preparing briefings and information papers that paint a very rosy picture of what the future will look like, long after their replacements have safely arrived in country. Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:12:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/john-cook/saving-afghanistan-one-advisor-at-a-time/ http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/dianne-pannes/happy-birthday-and-happy-anniversary/ We celebrated the Army Dental Corps’ 99th birthday this week on 03 March! This is the best Army Ball that I’ve been to – and we’ve been to quite a few. The highlight of the week and the Ball was our guest speaker and Corps Chief, MG Czerw. We also had dentists visiting from Canada and New Zealand to teach at our annual Forensics Course. COL Trengrove is the Senior Staff Officer Health for all military medical services in New Zealand (first dentist ever to hold this prestigious position!!) and has extensive Forensics experience with the military and the police. I first met him at a conference in Singapore 2 years ago and we started talking about an exchange program for Army dentists. It is amazing that we’ve gotten it off the ground! His contribution to our Forensics Course was monumental. And I can’t wait to go to New Zealand :) MAJ Les Campbell is a Detachment Commander in Canada. I first met him at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas where we were both serving as Mock Board Examiners for the ABGD Board Exam. We instantly hit it off with our common interest in dental continuing education. We have continued to cross paths at the annual Academy of General Dentistry Meeting and Les will be a speaker for me at the meeting this year in July. I recently sent him an email requesting materials due and received an “out of office” reply saying he was in Haiti in response to the recent earthquake. I immediately thought how valuable his experience there would be to our Forensics Course and contacted his Commander to see if we could get Les to Hawaii after he returned from Haiti. MAJ Campbell had one day notice to go to Haiti and not much more to come to Hawaii. This week he has delivered the most moving presentations of his work identifying Canadians that perished in Haiti. His work could not be more current or applicable and has been invaluable to everyone this week. He has even been able to bring his wife and daughter to Hawaii and is getting important “reconnecting” time with them. I cannot thank COL Trengrove or MAJ Campbell enough! This also goes to show the incredible networking that is possible in the Army. The most casual conversations and interactions turn in to amazing events for so many people. MG Czerw, MAJ Les Campbell (Canada), COL P, COL Hugh Trengrove (New Zealand), COL Lavin, COL Bachand I’m always SO proud of our residents! The Ball was at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Waikiki Beach. The residents and their spouses looked outstanding and we couldn’t have had a more incredible setting.   MAJ Chun Chan (2nd year), COL P, Mary Rondeau, CPT Alex Smith (2nd year), CPT John King (1st year), MAJ Ken Jo (1st year), Jihyun Park, COL Mark Kuba (1st year), Young Kuba, CPT Tin Le (2nd year), COL Dan Lavin (Director). (We missed CPT Le’s and MAJ Chan’s wives this year) A bonus to the evening was being able to renew my wedding vows with my husband. We actually do this every year…we’ve both been married before and we agreed at the beginning of our marriage to dedicate all the time and energy we could into keeping it strong. It’s easy to lose focus but renewing our vows every year helps keep us from losing perspective. It’s a little thing but it works for us and has become a fun and special tradition. We were actually married on 29 February 2000 (the last day it was legal for Officers and NCOs to marry) and since the Army Dental Corps Birthday Ball is always so close we often perform the ceremony at the B-Day Ball. Other locations have included Santorini, Greece (the best!), Key West, KoleKole Pass/Hawaii, and Ko Olina/Hawaii. This year is number ten!! My husband even arranged for a rainbow to shine over Diamond Head :) Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:44:00 GMT http://www.armystrongstories.com/blogger/dianne-pannes/happy-birthday-and-happy-anniversary/